As Jimmy Carter lays to rest in Atlanta, mourners continue to arrive well after dark – WABE

For the past two days, the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta has been open around the clock as former President Jimmy Carter lies in repose.

In the first 24 hours, more than 10,000 came to say goodbye. And they kept coming – well into the night.

By 22.00 on Sunday, the daylight had thinned out. Big lights illuminated mostly quiet security queues. Otherwise, the grounds became dark and quiet. But even at the late hour, a steady stream of mourners crossed the wooded campus to pay their respects.

“Coming at night really makes it different than during the day,” said longtime Carter Center staff member Laura Neuman. “It’s very dark where his casket is, and it’s draped with an American flag. But because it’s dark out, it just comes into focus.”

Neuman volunteered to work the Saturday evening shift into early Sunday. She says that many have found the small hours calm and the experience more intimate. She feels the same way and returned on Sunday evening.

“My quiet moment was tonight with my daughter when we went through to see President Carter,” Neuman said. “He really means a lot to our family, not only because I worked with him for 25 years, but because he helped bring my family together.”

The former president helped Neuman with her daughter’s adoption, and the Carters were among the first to hold baby Isabel when she arrived in Georgia from Guatemala. Now she is a sophomore in college.

“He brought us together,” Isabel said. “And that’s something I think I’ll carry for the rest of my life.”

Inside the Carter Center lobby, a military honor guard has stood guard over the casket. When the guard changes at 11:30 p.m., service members in uniform march silently in lock step.

“It felt spiritual,” said Marcus Williams, wearing a button-up shirt and a winter hat. “It was moving to say the least. It brought back a lot of memories.”

In 1976, Williams was a young soldier stationed at Fort Leonard Wood. That fall he cast his first vote for president. He voted for Jimmy Carter.

“I was just determined and I’m glad I came,” Williams said. “Just to say thanks.”

Outside by the exit is a thick binder filled with pages of tributes from visitors like Emily McDonald, who grew up in Albany, near the Carters’ hometown of Plains. She met them as a child.

“Just thinking about everything that’s happened in my own life since I was a little girl,” McDonald said. “I thought about all the things that have happened in the world since then. I felt really moved to see him one last time like that.”

McDonald works in mental health, a cause the Carters championed. She hopes to build on their legacy. Just before midnight, McDonald leaned over the tribute book, her neat handwriting filling half a page.

“I wrote about how, as another Southwest Georgian, how impactful it is to see someone from such a small and easily forgotten and looked over part of the state really change the world,” McDonald said.

Carter will return to the small corner of the state on Thursday to be buried in the place he called home for the better part of a century.